If not for about a 12-minute span against No. 1 Canadian two weeks ago, Abernathy coach Tony Truelove would be hard pressed to find many faults for his Antelopes through the first three weeks of the season.

So when the two teams meet today at 7:30 p.m. at Antelope Stadium to open District 3-2A play, the Mustangs questions and Antelopes' consistency will go head to head, with the winner getting the leg up on being a challenger to district favorites Idalou and Littlefield on down the road.

"The winner is in position to come out of the gates clean, and the loser stumbles," Summers said. "Now what does that mean? I've seen a lot of stumblers come back and clip somebody at the end, and I've seen a lot of guys come out of the gates clean and they come out too quick and falter at the end. Only time will tell how big this game is."

On the surface, it would appear the Mustangs have come out of the season gate clean, at least to this point. Denver City is averaging 322 yards per game offensively and has shown good balance in doing so.

That balance, though, has left questions in Summers' mind as to the identity of the team, whether it's a running team or should be throwing more. And the answers are still hard to come by with just three games played.

Quarterback Colt McDowell has picked up where he left off after his junior year, throwing for 399 yards and nine touchdowns. But the Mustang running game with Zach Ramon (225 yards, 2 TDs) and Alberto Alarcon (54 points scored) has been just as solid.

"We're still experimenting some," Summers said. "We need more time but we don't have more time. We have to go in rolling the dice and we just don't know. I don't think anybody knows after just a couple of games, I don't care what level you're on. You don't know what kind of team you are until you've played or seen it all."

Truelove thinks he knows what kind of team Denver City is - similar to the team that threw for 469 yards in handing the Antelopes (2-1) their only loss, 41-20, in Week 1.

"We're very cognizant of the similarities between them and Canadian," Truelove said. "We realize what Canadian did and we're sure Denver City will try to exploit that, and we've worked hard on those things. You have to have bodies in between the people and the ball. That's what we didn't do well against Canadian and have focused on for these two weeks."

Abernathy in its own right has not played badly this season. Outside of the 41 points surrendered to Canadian, the Antelopes have allowed just 10 points per game in their two wins, which have come by 19 points each over Friona and Floydada.

Senior running back Peyton Rogers has led the way in that effort, chewing up 296 yards on the ground and scoring five touchdowns. That has come despite the coaches tinkering with players along both the offensive and defensive lines.

"I think we have a lot of confidence going in," Rogers said. "We just have to come out and play everybody hard. We can't have a bad game in this district. If we all play good we will be all right."

In Truelove's mind, however, no team in this district can afford to stumble in the district opener, even though four of the eight teams will do just that.

"There are so many quality teams that are capable of getting to the playoffs that you just can't have a bad game," Truelove said. "That's what we've preached to the kids is we have to be consistent and play a good game every Friday night, seven times in a row."